# Internet Archive Scraper: Search, Metadata, Files, Wayback (`quiethand098/internet-archive-scraper-search-metadata`) Actor

Search archive.org books, video, audio, software and web archives. Get metadata, download links and Wayback Machine snapshots. Official APIs, no key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/quiethand098/internet-archive-scraper-search-metadata.md
- **Developed by:** [Quiet Hand](https://apify.com/quiethand098) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Internet Archive Scraper: search, metadata, download links, Wayback snapshots

Query archive.org (books, video, audio, software, images, web archives) and get clean JSON. Uses the official public archive.org APIs, so no API key, no proxy and no login. Requests are sent one at a time with retry backoff, so runs stay within archive.org's fair-use limits.

Built in response to the [Internet Archive Scraper request on Apify Ideas](https://apify.com/ideas/internet-archive).

### Sample output

```json
{
  "query": "title:(apollo 11)",
  "identifier": "Apollo1116mmOnboardFilm",
  "title": "APOLLO 11 16MM ONBOARD FILM",
  "mediatype": "movies",
  "downloads": 301031,
  "subjects": ["What -- Apollo 11", "space", "nasa", "Apollo 11", "16MM"],
  "collections": ["nasa-apollo-multimedia-gallery", "nasa", "movies"],
  "url": "https://archive.org/details/Apollo1116mmOnboardFilm"
}
```

### What you can do

- **Search** the whole archive with Lucene syntax (`creator:"NASA" AND subject:space`), filter by media type and date range, sort by downloads or date.
- **Get full metadata** for specific identifiers or item URLs, including description, license and the **list of files with direct download URLs**, sizes and MD5 hashes.
- **Wayback Machine**: find the closest snapshot of any URL for a given date, or list up to thousands of snapshots from the CDX index.

### Input examples

Tip: archive.org matches words anywhere in an item (title, description, reviews). For tight matches search a field, e.g. `title:(apollo 11)` or `creator:"NASA"`.

Search: `{"queries":["apollo 11"],"mediaTypes":["movies"],"sort":"downloads","maxItemsPerQuery":200}`

Metadata and files: `{"identifiers":["https://archive.org/details/apollo-11-mission-report"]}` or `{"queries":["nasa"],"includeFiles":true}`

Wayback: `{"waybackUrls":["example.com"],"waybackTimestamp":"20200101"}` or `{"waybackUrls":["example.com"],"waybackCount":500}`

### Output

Each search result: identifier, title, creator, date, mediatype, downloads, subjects, languages, collections, size, URL. With `includeFiles`: description, license and `files[]` with download links.

### Use cases

Research datasets, public-domain book and media collection, OSINT and link-rot recovery, SEO and content history, training-data sourcing. You are responsible for respecting the license of each item.

Pay per result: you are charged for each item pushed to the dataset.

### What is Internet Archive Scraper?

Internet Archive Scraper searches the Internet Archive (archive.org) and returns item metadata (title, creator, date, media type, downloads, collections), optional file download links, and Wayback Machine snapshots for the URLs you give it. You can run it from the Apify Console, call it over the API, schedule it, or connect it to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets and webhooks.

### How to use Internet Archive Scraper

1. Enter search **Queries** or exact item **Identifiers**; or paste URLs into **Wayback URLs** to list their snapshots.
2. Filter by **Media types** and **Date from/to**.
3. Turn on **Include files** if you need download links.
4. Click **Start** and export the results.

### How much does it cost?

You pay per item delivered, nothing for compute. Apify subscribers get lower prices:

| Plan | Price per item | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0.0020 | $2.00 |
| Bronze | $0.0018 | $1.80 |
| Silver | $0.0015 | $1.50 |
| Gold | $0.0012 | $1.20 |

Example: 2,500 items cost about $5.00 on the free plan. The Apify free plan includes $5 of monthly credit, so you can test on real data before paying anything.

### Integrations and API

Every run produces a dataset you can download as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read with the Apify API and the JavaScript/Python clients. The Actor also works as a tool for AI agents through the Apify MCP server.

### FAQ

**Is it legal?** The Actor only reads publicly available pages and does not log in anywhere. You are responsible for how you use the data, including GDPR and the terms of the source site.

**Something broke or a field is missing?** Open an issue in the Issues tab. I usually reply within a day and fix confirmed bugs quickly.

**Need a custom version?** Describe it in an issue and I will tell you what is possible.

### More Actors from this developer

| Actor | What it does |
|---|---|
| [Domain Enricher](https://apify.com/quiethand098/domain-contact-techstack-enricher) | Emails, phones, socials and tech stack for a list of company domains |
| [Remote Jobs Aggregator](https://apify.com/quiethand098/remote-jobs-aggregator) | Remote jobs from 7 job boards in one deduplicated feed |
| [YouTube Transcript Extractor](https://apify.com/quiethand098/youtube-transcript-rag-extractor) | Transcripts for many YouTube videos at once, with timestamps and RAG-ready chunks |
| [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/quiethand098/google-news-rss-scraper) | Google News articles by keyword or topic, with the real publisher URL |
| [App Reviews Scraper](https://apify.com/quiethand098/app-reviews-scraper-ios-android) | User reviews from the Apple App Store and Google Play in one dataset |

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Archive.org search queries. Supports Lucene syntax, e.g. creator:"NASA" or subject:space.

## `mediaTypes` (type: `array`):

Optional filter: texts, movies, audio, software, image, data, web, collection, etc.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY. Optional.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY. Optional.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Result order.

## `maxItemsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Maximum search results per query.

## `includeFiles` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch each item's full metadata and list of files with direct download URLs (one extra request per item).

## `identifiers` (type: `array`):

Skip search and fetch full metadata for these archive.org identifiers or item URLs.

## `waybackUrls` (type: `array`):

Find the closest archived snapshot of each URL (and the snapshot count if you set waybackCount).

## `waybackTimestamp` (type: `string`):

YYYYMMDD. Closest snapshot to this date; default is the latest.

## `waybackCount` (type: `integer`):

If above 0, list up to this many snapshots per URL from the CDX index instead of only the closest one.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "apollo 11"
  ],
  "sort": "relevance",
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100,
  "includeFiles": false,
  "waybackCount": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "apollo 11"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("quiethand098/internet-archive-scraper-search-metadata").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "queries": ["apollo 11"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("quiethand098/internet-archive-scraper-search-metadata").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "apollo 11"
  ]
}' |
apify call quiethand098/internet-archive-scraper-search-metadata --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,quiethand098/internet-archive-scraper-search-metadata"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/1hADhGzyeMT8kZ0Vz/builds/dHw7P7kmjOB9pmLLQ/openapi.json